A video game is an electronic game that involves human interaction with a user interface to generate visual and/or auditory feedback on a gaming device. The gaming device may be a general purpose computing device that is programmed to execute the video game, or a special-purpose gaming machine or console.
Over the years a broad spectrum of games have been developed which span a plethora of different genres, such as role playing games, puzzle games, simulation games, shooters, and so forth. In addition, different games allow for different levels of interactions between the various human participants. A single-player game is designed to elicit input from only one player throughout the course of the gaming session. Thus, the other characters or participants that the player encounters throughout the game consist solely of non-player characters (NPCs) controlled by one or more computer systems. By sharp contrast, in a multiplayer game, the player is confronted with characters or situations controlled by human participants in addition to or instead of NPCs. However, the format and degree of interaction between the human participants can vary greatly depending on the design of the particular game being played. One critical factor in the design of multiplayer games is the scale of the multiplayer interaction.
At one end of the spectrum are games which are designed for an immense number of simultaneous players (e.g. hundreds, thousands, hundreds of thousands, or even more). Collectively, such games are referred to as massively multiplayer online (MMO) games. For example, World of Warcraft® is an example of a massively multiplayer online role playing game (MMORPG) where a participant's character(s) may team up with, fight, or otherwise interact in a virtual world with multiple other participants' characters simultaneously. MMOs often offload processing from participant devices to central servers to reduce the amount of network communications and graphics computations required by the participant devices for each additional character that is added to the environment. Furthermore many MMOs, especially MMORPGs maintain a persistent game world that is shared across all the participating players. However, in order to prevent overcrowding or interference with certain objectives within the game many MMOs also implement “dungeon instancing”, which creates a copy of an area of the game world that is dedicated to a specific player or group of players. For example, cities and open areas of the game world may be shared between players, but specialized areas such as dungeons, lairs, keeps, etc. may be instantiated separately for each player or group or players and exist only as long as the area is in use by the associated players.
At the other end of the spectrum are games designed for a small number of simultaneous players. These games often also offer a solo or single-player game mode. Unlike MMOs, these games often localize processing on participant devices to maximize the quality of graphics and speed of the game. Furthermore, the limited number of players makes it more viable for network messages to be exchanged in a peer-to-peer fashion, rather than relying on a dedicated server to act as an intermediary. However, many games in this category still rely on a centralized server for authentication, saved data storage, and/or cheat prevention services. For example, in real-time strategy (RTS) games, such as Starcraft® or Warcraft®, a small number of human participants can compete simultaneously in individual game instances by collecting resources, gathering territory, constructing fortifications, building armies, and attempting to wipe out the opponents forces. These game instances are often instantiated for a particular match or round and then are reset or re-instantiated when the next match or round begins. As another example, the Diablo® series of games are action RPGs where a participant's character(s) team up with or otherwise interact in a virtual world with other participants' characters to build up their virtual characters with experience and equipment, fight monsters, and/or trade items. In many action RPGs, a player (referred to as the host) creates an instance of the game world for the other players to join and the instance persists until the host disconnects from the gaming session. However, in other implementations, a different player who is joined to the game instance is nominated as the new host, thus allowing the instance to persist until no players are left remaining.
Regardless of the scale of multiplayer interaction, multiplayer games enhance the gaming experience by stimulating the players' socially competitive and cooperative natures. For example, in MMORPGs and action RPGs players often group together to take on challenges and enemies that their own character may be ill equipped to tackle alone. As a result, players build lasting friendships or groups that play together on multiple occasions. To facilitate communication between players, multiplayer games often implement “friends lists” to which a player can add other players in order to keep track of their friends' online status and/or conveniently send messages to the added players. Furthermore, some games allow groups of players to establish “guilds” or “clans” that have access to unique features, such as a chat channel or in-game cosmetic effects that are shared between all participating members. However, most features that involve interactions between players require all participating players to be connected to the same game instance at the same time. Depending on each player's personal schedule, it may be rare for some players to find a convenient time to play together. As a result, there is a need for a mechanism that allows for the fostering of online relationships between players without necessarily requiring simultaneous play.
The approaches described in this section are approaches that could be pursued, but not necessarily approaches that have been previously conceived or pursued. Therefore, unless otherwise indicated, it should not be assumed that any of the approaches described in this section qualify as prior art merely by virtue of their inclusion in this section.